Very different types of coronary stents are already known from the prior art. The stents form a vascular prosthesis made from a physically compatible material. The stent or stent prosthesis is used for expanding blood vessels or also other body orifices and for keeping said vessels in their expanded state. To this end, the stent is positioned in a patient's body in its non-expanded state and is then expanded by suitable means, for instance a balloon catheter. During expansion the individual web portions of the stent are deformed such that the stent permanently remains in its expanded form.
A stent of such a type is, for instance, shown in Utility Model 297 02 671.
When stents are constructed, the fundamental problem arises that these must have a sufficiently small diameter in their non-expanded state to be introducible into and positionable in a patient's body. The stents must be flexible along their longitudinal axis to some degree so as to be able to follow the shapes of, for instance, blood vessels. During expansion the stent must be expanded such that its outer diameter becomes considerably larger. Such an expansion is achieved by deforming the individual web portions in such a manner that no cracks, or the like, are formed.